7x7x16 V Nose Cargo Trailer Conversion, First Build

[McDave]

Um, Hey jr,
I think I may have stumbled onto the cause of your problem. I see you have a mixing valve in the shower. And I suppose you have hot and cold water at that valve? So you turn on both knobs like a normal person to get warm water correct?
If so, then Bingo! That would drive the EcoTemp batsh*t crazy! It is designed to be used as is with the shower wand only. No need to mix cold in, it just heats to desired temp by flame size and water flow rate. So try this. Turn sink or shower on hot only. If it stays hot, OK. Now adjust the contols on the heater to shower temp. If you want a hot shower then open hot only. If you need a cold shower then open cold only. If you want something else like luke warm, you will have to adjust the heater control and use hot only. The heater senses flow rate to start the burner. if you are using hot and cold you probably are not getting consistant flow high enough to keep the flame on. I am pretty sure you need 1.8gpm min. at the heater. Not sure how much RV pump moves but chances are you split that by using cold valve as well. I am not sure, but this may be Padilen and Tommy's issue as well? I hope this makes sense, and you may know this already so it is not the issue, but if I remember correctly plumbing is not your forte. Check that out and get back with me. I'm glad to help you work through this.

McDave

[jr9744]

Um, Hey jr,
I think I may have stumbled onto the cause of your problem. I see you have a mixing valve in the shower. And I suppose you have hot and cold water at that valve? So you turn on both knobs like a normal person to get warm water correct?
If so, then Bingo! That would drive the EcoTemp batsh*t crazy! It is designed to be used as is with the shower wand only. No need to mix cold in, it just heats to desired temp by flame size and water flow rate. So try this. Turn sink or shower on hot only. If it stays hot, OK. Now adjust the contols on the heater to shower temp. If you want a hot shower then open hot only. If you need a cold shower then open cold only. If you want something else like luke warm, you will have to adjust the heater control and use hot only. The heater senses flow rate to start the burner. if you are using hot and cold you probably are not getting consistant flow high enough to keep the flame on. I am pretty sure you need 1.8gpm min. at the heater. Not sure how much RV pump moves but chances are you split that by using cold valve as well. I am not sure, but this may be Padilen and Tommy's issue as well? I hope this makes sense, and you may know this already so it is not the issue, but if I remember correctly plumbing is not your forte. Check that out and get back with me. I'm glad to help you work through this.

McDave

That makes sense actually. I'm going to give it a test and let you know. I truly hope this gets it.

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[jr9744]

Allright, so testing the shower is on hold because we are at about 20 degrees today. I plan to buy some more 'rv' antifreeze just to do some testing. Now the tanks are empty since my trip.

Since I now know that I can stick to state parks for the time being and be able to shower and use the toilet there, I'm focusing on the floor, floor insulation, and fixing the pin holes I put in my roof with the solar panels.

I've basically have done all the sanding and painting by hand. Preparing floors is very labor intensive, but I'm happy with my result of the first panel. It can only get better. A before/after pick


Inside the trailer


Considering I've never done this before, I'm very pleased with the results. 9 more panels to go!!

In case anyone is interested, here is what I did
- Sanded the board with 80/120/220 to get a smooth board
- Brushed Minwax Pre-Conditioner since I'm working with blochy pine. Waited 15 minutes and then wiped this off.
- Brushed Minwax Early American 320 Stain on the board. Waited 15 minutes. Wiped off any extra left on.
- After the board was dried, I added a very thin layer of Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane. Waited about 6 hours for this to dry.
- Once the Polyurethane was dried, gave the board another 220 sand.
- Gave the board one last coat of the Polyurethane and waited for it to dry.

[McDave]

Hey jr,
There will be plenty of time to work out water heater issue. You don't need to fight the weather. But as long as we are on the subject.. I know you said your tanks were empty but did you winterize the lines, pump toilet and water heater? This is kind of important. There are a couple ways to do it. The method I use is the RV anti freeze method . I pour 3-4 gals of the pink RV antifreeze into the EMPTY fresh tank. Turn on the pump and open the different faucets one at a time and let it run until you see pink anti freeze coming out of each one. Take the batteries out of the water heater and run all the hots as well. Flush the toilet until it is pink too. Turn off pump. Then go back to the heater and look at the bottom where the hoses are, you should see a brass thumbscrew. you want to back this out. Anti freeze will come out so be ready with a bucket or towels. open the sink hot valve and the heater should empty into the sink. The brass screw lets air into the tank so the heater can drain. I don't think you want to leave that in there all winter.
Also when in normal use you want to try to remember to drain that heater when not in use. This will help with the dribbling at shower control as well as slow down the corrosion process. Plus you won't get any funk from old water sitting in there when not in use. I would also make sure that there is anti freeze in all the traps. And try to get some in the black tank.

McDave

[tylerjd]

Loving the look of the floor, thank you for posting your process. I'm looking at doing something very similar in the next month or so so I'll be watching closely.

Are you planning on floating it? Glueing? Screwing?

[jr9744]

Loving the look of the floor, thank you for posting your process. I'm looking at doing something very similar in the next month or so so I'll be watching closely.

Are you planning on floating it? Glueing? Screwing?

I'm planning on using 6 screws per board. I like some black finishing square bit ones I seen at HD.

I want to be able to remove the planks easily if I need to. Otherwise I would have went with black rose head nails.

Look forward to seeing your build. It's not easy, but rewarding.

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[jr9744]

Hey jr,
There will be plenty of time to work out water heater issue. You don't need to fight the weather. But as long as we are on the subject.. I know you said your tanks were empty but did you winterize the lines, pump toilet and water heater? This is kind of important. There are a couple ways to do it. The method I use is the RV anti freeze method . I pour 3-4 gals of the pink RV antifreeze into the EMPTY fresh tank. Turn on the pump and open the different faucets one at a time and let it run until you see pink anti freeze coming out of each one. Take the batteries out of the water heater and run all the hots as well. Flush the toilet until it is pink too. Turn off pump. Then go back to the heater and look at the bottom where the hoses are, you should see a brass thumbscrew. you want to back this out. Anti freeze will come out so be ready with a bucket or towels. open the sink hot valve and the heater should empty into the sink. The brass screw lets air into the tank so the heater can drain. I don't think you want to leave that in there all winter.
Also when in normal use you want to try to remember to drain that heater when not in use. This will help with the dribbling at shower control as well as slow down the corrosion process. Plus you won't get any funk from old water sitting in there when not in use. I would also make sure that there is anti freeze in all the traps. And try to get some in the black tank.

McDave

I threw rv antifreeze in an empty tank and added some water. Then ran the full tank threw my system. I plan on getting more rv antifreeze and running through it with your method. The last thing I want is any of those components to fail.

I've never drained the water heater. I'll have to research how.

Do you just throw some rv antifreeze in the black tank?



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[aggie79]

Floor strip looks great! Like the previous poster, I've always wanted to try that myself.

You may want to consider additional coats of polyurethane for durability. One wipe-on poly and one standard poly are not enough to resist scratching/abrasion. "Floor" polyurethane has higher solids than furniture grade polyurethane, so that might be something you may want to try.

[jr9744]

Floor strip looks great! Like the previous poster, I've always wanted to try that myself.

You may want to consider additional coats of polyurethane for durability. One wipe-on poly and one standard poly are not enough to resist scratching/abrasion. "Floor" polyurethane has higher solids than furniture grade polyurethane, so that might be something you may want to try.

I agree. The 2 layers of poly won't cut it.

I plan on laying the floors, then hitting it with the floor poly you mention. My only concern is that it doesn't change the color much. Most oil based do have tints. My base is all oil, so not sure if water poly will go with it. More research....

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[jr9744]

A quick update.

I've finished all the boards I needed for the floors and have screwed the boards in place. I still have to cut about 1 7/8 strip for the far wall to have all the boards technically down. After I get the last board down, I plan to give the floor a sanding with probably 220 grit paper and then apply some minwax flooring I bought. I'll probably go with at least 3 coats.

Although I'm not done with the floors yet, I really like how it looks so far. It also feels really nice underfoot. You can tell they are just solid wood planks.

After sanding the floor again, I plan on putting 3 layers of this stuff..


Here is how the floor looks from the door.


Looking in through the front.


Looking in from the back.


From back with ramp open. I wish I bought 16 foot boards, but I had to make due with what I had. I had to cut and sand away to get the butt's as close together in the back there. I may buy some wood putty and see if I can use that to either make the gap better or make it look like one board. I will have to throw some more stain down too.


"The Crease"


I made a box for the PD4045. I'm getting good at making boxes.


I hope to get at least 1 layer of the flooring finish tomorrow. The can says every 2 hours you can recoat, but I suspect I may wait longer between coats. It also says no sanding, but we'll see.

I also got all the fuses, transfer switch, and battery cut off's for the electrical. I'll be wiring everything back up after the floors.

I'm considering taking off one of the solar panels with the HF extra battery, and Chinese controller I have and use it to power my stereo system. I have two amps and one subwoofer I'd like to add to the 4 speakers that came stock. So thinking about this one.

[hankaye]

jr9744, Howdy;

Yep, you're getting good at building boxes. Did you put some sort of venting in it ?
Most electrical stuff like that have a small fan to help cool it, but the fan needs
to be able to draw some outside air to do that. Just a heads-up...

hank

[McDave]

Wow! Those are some sexy floors. Funny while you were putting in new floors I was giving the kitchen a tune up. I put in a new kitchen about 21-22 yrs ago. Time really flies... Needless to say I am not as young as I once was, and all that time working on floors, cabinets, doors, countertops, windows, walls and appliances took a toll and it was -30f -52f wind chill which doesn't help old bones, so I was a little poopy pants for a few days. So just a couple things I remembered that I wanted to let you in on. Wood is beautiful and it feels good and it makes you a better person, but.... it is slicker than owl sh*t for them poor dogs. Your pooch looks to be fully mature and probably doesn't have all that puppy energy anymore, But a rug with rubber backing will help with the traction issue for you both. Socks are slickery as well. Also, Knotty Pine likes to do strange things for year or two so don't be surprised if you see some different warping or a split here and there as time goes on. Pine is also very soft and will dent and mar easily if you move something heavy across it or drop a tool on it. Last but not least, any time you are doing long runs of almost any material like flooring or siding or drywall where you will have butt joints, you will want to stagger the joints so they are not in the same place or form a consistent pattern. Random patterns like nature will make it flow and your eye won't focus on one place. If you start with 10' planks, take a foot off one then continue to fill in that run. Then start with that foot piece on the next run. Keep it as random as possible and use your cut offs to begin or end a run. Sorry I didn't get that tidbit to you sooner. Here are some pics of 20+yr old red oak, 3/4" x 2 1/2", cabinets I did in Hickory, base trim pine, doors and windows Poplar. Notice the floor joints, completely random. Still looks pretty good.





McDave

[jr9744]

jr9744, Howdy;

Yep, you're getting good at building boxes. Did you put some sort of venting in it ?
Most electrical stuff like that have a small fan to help cool it, but the fan needs
to be able to draw some outside air to do that. Just a heads-up...

hank

I left the back of the box open. Plus I added some vents on the side and on top. I can easily add a fan to circulate some air. You think the PD4045 needs outside air though?

[jr9744]

Wow! Those are some sexy floors. Funny while you were putting in new floors I was giving the kitchen a tune up. I put in a new kitchen about 21-22 yrs ago. Time really flies... Needless to say I am not as young as I once was, and all that time working on floors, cabinets, doors, countertops, windows, walls and appliances took a toll and it was -30f -52f wind chill which doesn't help old bones, so I was a little poopy pants for a few days. So just a couple things I remembered that I wanted to let you in on. Wood is beautiful and it feels good and it makes you a better person, but.... it is slicker than owl sh*t for them poor dogs. Your pooch looks to be fully mature and probably doesn't have all that puppy energy anymore, But a rug with rubber backing will help with the traction issue for you both. Socks are slickery as well. Also, Knotty Pine likes to do strange things for year or two so don't be surprised if you see some different warping or a split here and there as time goes on. Pine is also very soft and will dent and mar easily if you move something heavy across it or drop a tool on it. Last but not least, any time you are doing long runs of almost any material like flooring or siding or drywall where you will have butt joints, you will want to stagger the joints so they are not in the same place or form a consistent pattern. Random patterns like nature will make it flow and your eye won't focus on one place. If you start with 10' planks, take a foot off one then continue to fill in that run. Then start with that foot piece on the next run. Keep it as random as possible and use your cut offs to begin or end a run. Sorry I didn't get that tidbit to you sooner. Here are some pics of 20+yr old red oak, 3/4" x 2 1/2", cabinets I did in Hickory, base trim pine, doors and windows Poplar. Notice the floor joints, completely random. Still looks pretty good.

McDave

I was originally hoping for no joints, just long one piece planks (As you can see, I miscalculated some). The good news is that I can easily bring them up and change if I need to (Not that I plan too).

I did read all the information about Pine being soft and people really don't even like to use it for floors. But, I'm about $170 into the floors including all the wood, stains, brushes, and extra coatings. At this price, I'm o.k. with them not looking perfect after I spend more time in the trailer. I will absolutely add some sort of rugs in the main area and galley.

I don't think I would even think about stepping outside in anything below 0. Last week it got close to 0, and it was super painful. This week it's warmer, so I'm hitting it as much as I can.

And my dog still has that puppy energy! I was told 2 years for a lab, but not the case. He's going on 7 years and his energy sometimes drives me crazy (In fairness, he's not a working dog. He eats and sleeps all day).

[hankaye]

jr9744, Howdy;

jr9744, Howdy;

Yep, you're getting good at building boxes. Did you put some sort of venting in it ?
Most electrical stuff like that have a small fan to help cool it, but the fan needs
to be able to draw some outside air to do that. Just a heads-up...

hank

I left the back of the box open. Plus I added some vents on the side and on top. I can easily add a fan to circulate some air. You think the PD4045 needs outside air though?

It already has one, front bottom Left, the venting is to dissipate the heat so the fan does not have to work as much.
The fan should only need to activate when there is a heavy load or when the battery runs down which make the
unit work harder.

hank